>> Interviewer: And you read music? Did you teach yourself that?
>> Teeny Tucker: No, don't need it. As a matter of fact you looked at my book of videos right? And all this stuff comes from my own experience, what I know. There's nothing I learned through education, I mean it's educational but not in the formal education way. And I don't know if that's good or bad, but that's all I have to offer. (Laughing)
>> Interviewer: That's quite an offer teeny.
>> Teeny Tucker: well, you know I think that reading goes along with anything else we do. I mean, I think reading too is something that you have to enjoy. Because if you do not enjoy reading, you're not going to read. My son, when he was little, I used to make input the bike down, and come and read the book. My daughter, I used to make her put the book down and go ride the bike. So I think it depends on what they're more interested in. And she loved books, he didn't love books. Like I would tell him, he said " mommy, tell me how to do this." And I would say " no, read it, read the directions." Even if you don't read a book, read directions and learn something. I mean, read something, just don't go every day without reading something. So I said, " what could I do to make him read?" And I started getting him comic books, he liked comic books. So I think we have to tap into what our kids, as a woman like with ten kids, you can't treat them all the same. And whenever I can get out of him, to make him read, well now he likes to cook. He's a great cook. He's going to culinary school, after 27 years he decided this is what I really want to do. Because he's always been a cook. But I told him, I said, " you know what, if you're going to be a crook, you're going to have to read all those directions, and all those ingredients, and are going to have to know what measurements are." And actually, no discredit to my girls, but he's smarter than they are, they're just more dedicated. Should I say, because my youngest, she's going to be a forensic analyst or something when she graduates. And I used to tell them, they would wake up in the morning and say " I don't feel good." I said," guess what, I don't either. I'll tell you what, I'll go to work and you'll go to school, and if at noon we don't feel good, we'll call each other and then we'll come home. (Laughter). That never happened. So you've got to be dedicated to something. Life only gives you what you put into it. And I find myself reading more as I've gotten older, I like to read more as I've gotten older. Reading was never my thing, I just wanted to create something of that was inside me, not read something else. You know, just the original.
>> Interviewer: You're fine. That's great. (Laughter).
>> Teeny Tucker: So I think every kid should learn to read, in any way that you can get them to read. But now with computers and stuff, I don't know, with the stains. I used to tell people, I said, when my sister and I were little we went to bed in our room to go to sleep, not to play a game or watch TV, or player record, or listen to the radio. It was like it was your sleeping quarters, nothing about an entertainment center. You know, now they have Entertainment Centers. (Laughter)
>> Interviewer: In their rooms, I know, Ya.
>> Teeny Tucker: And I'm thinking, oh my god, it was my sleeping quarters, you know. I always come up with phrases, people be like " Oh I like that, where did you get that?"
>> Interviewer: (Laughter) I'm a songwriter.
>> Teeny Tucker: Well you know I've been in theater and stuff too, in the local theater and I like the stuff that you do, when you can go back and do the old slang like back in the day, like (speaking in slang). I love stuff like that, I used to make up my own nursery rhymes for my kids when they were little. And I said, this is a black nursery rhyme. And they said " what kind is that?" And I said " old Mother Hubbard, sat by her cupboard, eating her porridge" I just mixed everything up. Along came a spider, and sat down beside her, and what did that spider say? Gimme that food girl!"
>> Interviewer: That's great. (Laughter).
>> Teeny Tucker: I mean, you do what they can relate to. Or I would say " I'm the wicked witch of the east, and I know you've been a bad little boy today." And my son would say "You ain't no wicked witch of the east, you're my mommy" (laughter). Like I said, my son, you had to pin him down, it has to be something he likes. He's just not into reading. But there is ways, I mean I'm still, even like my first grade teacher, I told you that, when I wrote that down, she still a very good friend of mine. We're a lifetime friends, ever since kindergarten. And my mother had seven of us. And she said " I tried to get you from your mom when you were little, and let you come and live with me." She said she used to look at my mother and wonder how did she take care of all those kids? But she did it, and she went to school, and she cooked during the day. So there's no excuse for these young kids now. You can do it, just put your mind to it. And she said "But your mother wouldn't give you away. So I had to keep visiting you." I guess I was a special little kid. (Laughter) if somebody schoolteacher wanted me, I must've been pretty special, that's what I always thought.
>> Interviewer: Absolutely, that's wonderful.
>> Teeny Tucker: well I have a little girl that I actually keep now. Her mother actually left her with me to babysitter for the weekend, and she didn't come back for six months. You know, the only thing she knew at five years old was her colors. She didn't know how to write her name, she did know how to read her name, she didn't know anything about anything. And I got her into the IE the program at school, and she's doing a lot better now. She's reading at the level she should be at, yeah, it took her a long time. And I think that, when you're, I think learning to read, or anything in life, yet to consider, even when you're in the womb, you can drug your body up, put things in it, you know what I'm saying? You make life hard for your kids before they're even born. That's bad. And then you have to work harder with those kids, and he's going to be dedicated to those kids, you know? But she's 12 now, so she's doing well.